Photo by Patrick Heinzen
“I was tired of the crap going on with the council,” said Yvonne Johnson.
The day before the 1972 Gulfport City Council election qualifying period ended, Johnson threw her name in the mix.
Johnson was born in Gainesville, but moved to Gulfport in 1951. During this time, she became active in the Presbyterian church. She helped build the Gulfport Presbyterian Church. In 2022, the church shut down after 75 years, although 93-year-old Johnson held her last meeting as the Clerk of Sessions.
According to Gulfport Arts & Heritage, Johnson can trace her family lineage back to 1066 A.D. As her kids grew up, she was active in the Parent Teacher Association (PTA), eventually serving as the district president for the Florida PTA and creating a Parent Student Teacher Association.
After listening to gripes from her peers, she decided to run for Gulfport City Council.
“I can’t point to anything specific that made me want to run,” said Johnson. “The man who was representing my district wasn’t very well-liked. A lot of people were asking me to run, and I checked the paper one day and someone had written about him. When City hall opened on Monday, I walked in and signed up. I was always active in the PTA, but I hadn’t really thought about being a part of the council.”
Yvonne Johnson’s Council Life
Photo via Bob Ponder
For 15 years, Johnson served the City.
“I ran and was elected for the council with the most votes up to that point,” said Johnson. “At my first meeting, they were talking about building in Town Shores, and building a new building. The developer came to the meeting, after being told a few weeks before that it was approved by the council.”
Despite this, the council voted 2-2, with Johnson being the tiebreaker.
“I voted to allow them to build. I read through the minutes of the past meetings and the council approved it before. You can’t promise someone something to deny it the next day,” said Johnson. “People told me they would never vote for me again.”
But comments said in the heat of the moment don’t always bear out.
“I retired 15 years later,” she said.
For the last two years of her term, from 1985-1987, she won her election for mayor. She served as Gulfport’s first female Mayor, and no other woman has won a bid for mayor since. Once again, she said, she didn’t have a specific agenda; she simply wanted to help the city.
“I didn’t put up a sign. It’s not my style. I just wasn’t happy with the way they were handling business,” said Johnson, suggesting council was more performative than she liked when she took office. “They used to have balloons and such at meetings. It was standing room only. That’s no way to do things.”
Mayor Tenure
At her first meeting as mayor, Johnson showed she wasn’t someone to mess with.
“Someone was being obnoxious at my first meeting. I had them escorted out,” said Johnson. “I’m not one to sit and be degraded. I told them I’d walk out before I deal with that. Even before I was elected people were bothering me. Someone put a dead fish on my doorstep. Another person put a ‘For Sale’ sign in my yard.”
Despite this, Johnson wasn’t bothered.
“At the meeting where we introduced the new council members, someone asked me how I would respond if someone insulted me or said something bad about me. I told them they already have and I’m still here,” said Johnson.
Unfortunately, she had to retire in 1987 due to illness in the family.
“I retired before I ran for another term, so I didn’t have to leave during my term,” said Johnson. “I knew I couldn’t be here, and I was right. We lost seven family members in 18 months. I would’ve run for another term, but I’m glad I didn’t.”
“I went for a drive with my family through Gulfport the other day, because if you don’t drive around everything changes so fast. There’s really no problems with the change. I don’t have any problems with the City. There were some times where I wish I had never thought of being on the Council, but I’m glad I was,” said Johnson.
The Gabber Newspaper? We Go There
In 1968, our founder, George Brann, started The Gabber Newspaper, then called the Gulfport Gabber, to hold Gulfport City Council accountable. Read more of our city council coverage, and learn about our policies on reporting, fact-checking, and funding.
